World Bank warns of gaps in unemployment

The lack of quality jobs being created in G20 countries will lead to a negative impact on global economic growth.

This is according to a report prepared by the ILO, the OECD and the World Bank Group for the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers meeting happening in Melbourne this week.

The gap in job creation is expected to last until 2018, and there are currently more than 100 million people still unemployed in the G20 economies. Around 447 million ‘working poor’ living on less than $2 a day in emerging G20 economies.

Countries included in the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

“Jobs are a foundation for economic recovery,” the report said. “G20 countries need more and better jobs as a foundation for sustained growth and well-being of their societies.”

It was also revealed real wages have stagnated and even dropped in many G20 economies, with the wage and income inequality gap remaining high or widening in some.

They also found the high levels of under-employment are constraining both current output and future productivity.

The report suggest the G20 economies need to achieve sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth across all relevant sectors that improve productivity and wages, employment opportunities, particularly for those most affected by crisis.

“Policy interventions that address both the demand and supply sides of the labor market are essential to reverse the current self-reinforcing cycle of slow growth, low job creation and low investment.

“Such policies would be much more effective if taken collectively and coordinated at the G20 level,” the report said.